10 Years Later, Shaun of the Dead Still Leads the Zombie Pack

Image courtesy Rogue Pictures

The date April 9, 2004 may not be officially recognized as a landmark day for cinema—particularly genre cinema with an ice cream-related twist. But there’s still time for that to change with the realization that 10 years ago today, Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead was unleashed upon the world.

These days everyone and their parent of choice probably knows Simon Pegg—either from one of the Three Flavors Cornetto trilogy movies, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, or the Star Trek reboot. But Shaun was the thing that brought him to a wider audience following the cult success of Spaced, the British sitcom that paired him with Wright for the first time. Without Shaun, we also wouldn’t have the severely underrated Scott Pilgrim vs. the World or the forthcoming Ant-Man, Wright’s solo contributions to the canon of comic book movies that remind the world that it doesn’t always have to be about grimacing and political allegories.

But the impact Shaun of the Dead had goes well beyond just introducing the world to a great director and many fantastic actors. It was actually ahead of its time in a lot of ways; movies like Attack the Block owe much to its success, and there’s no denying that it affectionately deconstructed the zombie genre for audiences unfamiliar with the tropes way before the likes of World War Z or The Walking Dead had gone mainstream. The movie helped pave the way for those scores of zombie films and TV shows that came after it. It also made zombie flicks good for a laugh in the way that, say, Night of the Living Dead simply didn’t.

And that brings us to the most important fact about the movie: It’s very, very funny. Even a decade after its release, Shaun of the Dead remains effortlessly fresh and endlessly amusing. Why are you even still reading this? You should go and watch it again—in fact, make it a triple bill along with Hot Fuzz and The World’s End. But make sure that you’re stocked up with ice cream and have a cricket bat handy. You know, just in case.